أَلَسْتُمْare you not

Example sentences

• قَالَ وَيْلَكُمْ أَلَسْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ مِنْ غِفَارٍ وَأَنَّ طَرِيقَ تِجَارِكُمْ إِلَى الشَّأْمِ فَأَنْقَذَهُ مِنْهُمْ،

  He said, "Woe to you! Do you not know that he is from Ghifar and that your merchants travel to Syria, so he rescued him from them?"

  أَلَسْتُمْ — are you not. A question fused from a questioning prefix, a negator, and 'you (plural)'. It is a rhetorical 'are you not...?' — built to press the listeners into admitting what they already know, not to ask for real information.

  From: A Stranger Finds the Prophet →